St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-07-14
OUR ONE VOLCANO.
A Graphic Description of the Only
American Volcano.

New YORK, July 13.-A Herald spe-
cfal from Ell Paso says: 81 have just re-
turned from the scene of the only active
volcano in North America. The volcano
lies twelve miles, as the crow flies, from
BaviSpe, in the state of Sonora, in the
extreme northwest corner of Mexico. a
rough estimate will place the distance
from Ell PaSo at 400 miles, calculating
on bee line. The ragged and desolate
nature of the country, the infrequency
of its springs, and the almost deadly
heat that exists there nine months out
of the twelve have effectually kept out
the American prOSpectOr, although the
mountains are full of gold, and even the
hardy Mexican has largely left it to its
primal solitude. Here and there are
scattered villages, of which BaviSpe is a
type 1t contains about $500 souls. if
you count soul to each inhabitant.
They are so miserably poor and live in
a condition of such indescribable SqualOr
and perpetual misery that their lot COM
pareS unfavOrably with the wandering
coyote, their nearest neighbor. We went
by way of the CarralitOS hacienda, on
the Britton Davis ranch, lying about
due east of BaViSpe, in the state of Chi
huahua. 1t was from this point that the
real journey commenced.
TO CONCEIVE THE FATIGUE
and ardor of the trip one must add a
blazing sun that scared and shriveled
the very granite, parched and alkali
laden wind blowing at midday, and fill
ing the throat with smarting particles,
and reflection from the earth that was
like the breath of a furnace. The
eighth day brought the explorers into
the vicinity of Bavispe. but little
prior to this we had the first intimation
of coSmic disturbance in the shape of a
fiuttering tremor Of the earth. The
lating, increased in frequency as we
drew near the town. On the 1St of last
Nav Just at the gray of dawn, the vii,
layers were awakened by Sickening
shudder of the earth, followed by a
quick tremor that reduced half of the
adObes of the place to ruins. Since
that morning of desolation and terror
there has been no day unaccOmpanied
by an earthquake. Sometimes it has
been so violent as to loosen masses of
rock and open vast assures in the
mountain side, and sometimes it is an
almost imperceptible vibration, but
never has it entirely ceased, and the
superstitious Mexicans have given
themselves up to the apathy of despair.
Our appearance, which in other times
would have convulsed the village with
excitement, scarcely attracted attention.
A few half naked men and haggard
women struggled out of their tenementS
of brush to meet us, but many merely
glanced from their open dOorWayS and
made no signs. The town, or rather
what was the town, looks like the
hroI fnv vii q nf q child fIhPTn
NOT A HOUSE LEFT STANDING.
Shattered heaps of adObeS and yaWn-
ing holes mark their former place, and
mingled in the ruin are the few utensils
of their domestic life, for which a super
StitiouS terror forbade them to return.
Many have gone toward the South, but
the bulk of the people are far too poor
to undertake journey which, without
resources, means death, and so they
have camped within sight of the wreck
of their homes in mute and pathetic
helplesSneSS. The mortality which at
tended this disaster must have been
great, but it was almost impossible to
draw any of them into conversation, and
quite so to obtain any accurate lnforma-
ton. Over twenty Sunken places
marked recent graves, and as many
more dead are probably lying in the
ruinS. fTOlIl DdNISpt VIC Idu
sight of our objective point, the volcano.
A pennant of smoke, trailed by the
wind from low, square-tOpped peak to
the southeast, defined its location, while
a dull and muttering roar, almost inceS-
SAINT, told that the torches of nature
were at work.
THE VOLCANO LIES
about twenty miles from the site of the
town. but over such an extraordinary
broken tract of country that we realized
at once that it would require two days
Journey to reach it, and pushed straight
ahead without delay. The phenomena
which we had observed at BaviSpe in
creased in volume as we approached the
mountain. We followed the dry stream,
which at some forgotten period had
worn a causeway through the granite.
1t was broken by assures of evident re-
cent origin, running from north to south,
and in some cases four or five feet
broad, and of unknown depth. Spring
ing from one of these about four miles
out, we encountered a geyser rivaling
any of those in the National park. 1t is
in the center of a circular basin with
sides of sand and mud and about forty
feet in diameter. At intervals of
fifteen minutes an immense stream of
boiling water leaps out up to height
of, l should judge, sixty feet. The
geyser spOuts for four or five minutes
and then subsidies as quickly as it came,
disappearing with mutter that rever-
berateS far down into the bowels of the